200+mb provider - Gig router only (no WiFi) recommendation?

I currently use Mesh based access points, so use OpenWRT on router only mode (ie radios disabled).

Currently I have a cheap WD N750 and 100/100mb internet (Fios). I should be renewing my contract in a month or two and more likely will be provisioned to 200/200mb (that's the minimum they are now doing).

Since my router is not capable of doing over 100mb for NAT, I'm looking at a replacement but don't have need for WiFi on it.

Any recommendations on a low cost? Don't want to rent their router or be capped at 100mb...

TIA.

Your situation isn't the most simple one, as higher end devices that can cope with higher WAN speeds tend to come with higher end WLAN; being more expensive in general.

In theory, the lower end mt7621 devices would cope with your performance requirements - but only if you don't have advanced requirements beyond routing/ NAT/ simple firewalling. As soon as your expectations include VPN or other services with higher CPU requirements, its 2*880 MHz mips cores lose steam very quickly.

Low end mvebu (e.g. Linksys WRT1200AC) might also fit the bill, offering the necessary routing performance combined with more CPU performance than mt7621 can offer.

On the other hand, your use case would be a prime example for x86 (the difficulty/ price raiser for x86 usually tends to be equipping it with multiple good WLAN cards), so basically anything with at least two 1 GBit/s ethernet cards would fit the bill. Be it Atom based mini-ITX, several of the chinese mini PCs with 4+ ethernet cards or the PC Engines APU2/3. Either of those will be able to deal with >900 MBit/s throughput, with quite some performance left for additional tasks, starting around ~130-150 EUR/ USD.

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Chinese 5w-10w J1900 x86 seems great. Low wattage similar to WD750 but leagues better processing power.

Pair that w/ your mesh APs and even use your WD750 as another guest AP.

When 802.11ax rolls out for mesh APs, you can have a nice plug n play upgrade path.

x86 should really be the base. ARM and MIPs in routers are too slow.

+1 for PC Engines APU2/3
Last not least: Very reliable hardware. Swiss quality.

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By the way, this is not the current state anymore. The WD N750 has recently been ported to ath79. Software flow offload works fine, and it now performs much closer to the 200 mbit/s mark (I remember seeing 170, 180 mbit/s). (Edit: via PPPoE on a Japanese FTTH) This doesn't suddenly make it a powerhouse of course, but it might just alleviate a bit of the urgency to switch to a more powerful device.

(If you try to go for the snapshot image, just a hint that may save you some grief: A direct flash of the snapshot-factory image through the "Emergency Room" recovery mode didn't take for me, it would only correctly boot once but afterwards always booted into recovery mode. I had to factory-flash an older image (I chose 17.01 because whocares) and then upgrade to snapshot, it might also just work with a sysupgrade from whatever older OpenWrt you are coming from.)

As for recommendations, if Wifi is not a requirement, an Ubiquity EdgeRouter X might fit your bill rather nicely. It can do ~500 mbit/s on NAT, ~900 mbit/s if you enable hardware flow offload.

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Espressobin if you want something cheap
http://espressobin.net/
UP Board Squared if you want something faster and smaller


Refurbed business PC otherwise :slight_smile:

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@su_A_ve, welcome to the community!

It won't?

Mines gets about 300 Mbps.

Really!

I didn't know this, I was referring to the ar71xx.

Otherwise, I'd advise like others.

I would go for a cheap dual LAN x86 with pfsense (sorry OpenWRT) :slight_smile:

Check out Thin Clients with AMD GX424CC passive-cooled and add a dual Gbit mini PCI-e card - would be cheap and nasty!
Edit:
Check this one out and add this card (or this if you want to go SFPs and be ready for fiber) instead of the wireless... I350 is a beast but there are cheaper options available too.

Edit2: Even with no additional NIC you will easily get ~500mbps NAT with just VLANs (assuming your switch is capable of 1Gbps too) with the onboard NIC.